Lent, again

I received an unusual number of comments about my Fat Thursday post, sent or spoken privately.  One reader was curious as to what a Traditional Catholic Lent really looks like, and another was cross because  he felt I gave a false impression of it. Still others are amused that I'm going to Poland, land of meat, during Lent.

So I have looked up the Official 1962 Lent, and here is what I found.  Compared to what the Greeks do today (when they actually do it), it is astonishingly lenient. In the 1940s, Latin Catholics were actually weighing their food, lest they eat too much.

Thanks to the 1962 Discipline, I feel better now about having such relaxed Lenten Sundays, and we will be following the rules for 1962 while we are in Poland (e.g. wine and beer, not vodka). The no-booze, not-eating-meat-except-on-Sundays regimen (at home) is just our own offering, so nobody else should feel that this is something THEY should do.

Just remember, whatever you DO do will probably be done better by our Eastern Catholic and Orthodox brethren (or their monks and nuns). But if any of the Greeks get snide about lazy Latin practises, be sure to tell them about the Russians and how they don't eat ANYTHING from Good Friday to Easter Sunday.